Pandora's Box
by Raye of the Sunshine
Summary: Christmas exchange 2016. Christmas Eve 2028, Phoenix and Maya sit by the fire (on the TV) and open a couple presents away from prying eyes. NaruMayo.


_Merry Christmas, Misha! I'm sorry that I could not draw what you asked. The truth is, I've never drawn Nick nor Maya before, and I didn't want to try when it meant that you might not get the best Christmas present possible. I'm sorry you got this later than everyone else got theirs; I had all sorts of things happen at once and couldn't finish this in time. I hope you forgive me and enjoy this._

 _This story is set the Christmas Eve after Spirit of Justice. No direct spoilers. Oh yes, and happy birthday to Princess Rayfa, as this story occurs on her fifteenth birthday._

 _IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS UNTIL THE SIXTH SO THERE!_

 _Edit: made a chronological error, no one told me, I just noticed it... oops_

* * *

Maya leapt onto the couch, getting perfectly snug by wrapping all manners of blankets about herself. When she looked fairly like a cocoon, she waved Phoenix over. "Come sit with me," she giggled, patting the seat cushion next to her.

"You could have saved some blankets for me," he replied, his frown only halfhearted as he sat next to her.

"Don't be silly. Scoot closer and we can share." It had been her plan all along to share the blankets, but she always got a kick out of it when he complained like that. Maya began to unwrap the blankets around herself to lay them over the both of them as he scooted over as he was told. "Better?"

"Much," he said quietly, wrapping an arm around her.

She leaned into him with a sigh, resting her head on his shoulder. _I love you so much,_ she thought. "So Trucy is in bed?" She felt rather than heard his reply, as he hummed an affirmative. "Pearly should be in bed too." Maya crossed her fingers, hoping that her sweet cousin would understand that she and Mr. Nick wanted to be _alone_ , and to _not_ listen at the door.

"It's just us." Phoenix grinned at her. "Like the good old days."

Maya couldn't help but tease, "The good old days when we had to save Edgeworth from certain doom? I liked those days too." She sat up just enough, and continued, "Getting tasered by an evil and insane prosecutor, ending up in the contempt of the court saving your case, blacking out while Mia saved your sorry self—"

"Hey!" he protested. "That last part was _not_ true!"

" _That_ time," she conceded, glad he caught out her half-truth, as she had channeled her sister to save his case and himself before… just not that time.

"And anyway, I could _never_ have solved those cases without your help, Maya." His eyes were intense and fierce, so much so that she could not look away. "I was sad that you left."

"I had to go," she reminded him.

"I know," he sighed, and she felt that he was talking about more than just that one time.

Maya poked him, not wanting their Christmas Eve to be ruined. "Aw, enough of that stuff! It's in the past, Edgeworth is fine, and we're _here_ , together!"

It seemed to do the trick, as his face lightened up and he smiled at her. "All right, so we are. So, why did you want me to get into my pajamas and make hot chocolate? We don't have a fire here to sit by."

"The TV is doing its job admirably," she demurred, "and we have heaters going, so we can pretend we're sitting by one." He laughed, and she smiled back. "I just wanted this to be our night. Just us. We've been so busy now that Apollo is back, trying to do as much family stuff together as we can and send him back with far too many gifts, that we haven't had any time for _us_. Just you and me."

Phoenix leaned and kissed her cheek. "Yeah, you're right. So now we can pretend we're sitting by the fire in our pajamas, drinking hot chocolate. Luckily, it's snowing, so we can stare outside too when we're bored of the TV."

"You've got no sense of romance, Nick," she laughed. "Just _pretend_! And if we're really quiet, and pretend we're asleep, maybe Santa won't notice we're here and we can see what he's up to—"

This time it was his turn to laugh. "Oh Maya, I thought you were too old for Santa."

"No one is too old for Santa," she returned stubbornly. "Least of all me. Maybe you, old man."

This made him turn serious, and she wondered what she did wrong. She was only teasing him as usual, surely he knew that? Maya bit her lip, hoping she hadn't hurt his feelings, when he said, "Am I too old for you, Maya?"

 _Not what I expected,_ she managed to think, so shocked was she at the very idea that he thought he was too old. "No." Maya shook her head vehemently. "Never."

"You always tease me about it—"

" _Tease_ , Nick. Just tease. I love you." Their eyes locked and she could feel a red tinge unfurl across her cheeks, but she would not look away from him or fidget. "I love you, and you are not too old." If they weren't so serious at that moment, she'd have teased him about passing out at Khura'in, but that would only add to whatever insecurity brought this on. "You're only seven years older. Maybe when we first met you were too old. Maybe when I became eighteen you were too old. But I'm twenty-eight, Phoenix Wright, and you are not too old."

He relaxed. "Thank you, Maya Fey," he whispered, and captured her lips with his. But before she could really sink into this kiss, he broke away. She pouted at him, but he grinned, his initial cheer returning. "How about opening a couple presents?"

Maya lit up, and she swatted him for his chuckle. "Presents? But it's Christmas Eve!"

"I think that this is the right time for it. Just the two of us, you know?"

She had a funny feeling he was hiding something from her, but Christmas presents were Christmas presents, and everyone always got secretive about those. "Well, all right. But only a couple. I want something to open tomorrow too!"

He nodded and then took a sip from his hot chocolate. Once he set it down, he got out of the pile of blankets Maya had heaped upon them, and walked to the Christmas tree everyone had set up only a week before.

Maya, on her part, shivered. While she was in her favorite flannel pajamas, and still covered with blankets, Phoenix had taken his own warmth with him, and she had felt a rush of cool air hit her. "Hurry up and come back under the blankets," she told him, her usual teasing tone left out. _It's better to snuggle with another person anyway,_ she told herself, blatantly ignoring that she just wanted him to come back because she missed him. Old habits die hard, and half the time she and Phoenix simply acted like they weren't in a relationship even when they and everyone else knew they were.

"As you wish, Master," he teased, using her official title.

Instead of replying, Maya merely stuck her tongue out at him. _Truly, we're very mature adults,_ she thought, grabbing her own hot chocolate and taking a big gulp. Maybe if she were occupied like this, she could stop making a fool of herself.

Phoenix brought over three little presents, placing them in her lap and climbing back under the blankets. "There you are, three presents, with plenty left for tomorrow."

"You really didn't have to, Nick," she said quietly, putting a hand on his. "I mean, it's nice and all, but we know how to enjoy one another's company without distractions."

He smiled, and her heart melted. "I know, Maya," he answered, his reply equally soft. "But I _wanted_ to, and I think you'll enjoy them."

She glanced at him but nodded, turning her attention to the gifts in her lap. "Any particular order to these?"

He tapped them like a game of Simon Says, and then returned to the first he had touched. "This one first. The others won't make sense if you don't."

Her curiosity fully piqued now, she tore the wrapping off and found herself holding a small black box. It was far too big to be a ring box, which calmed her nerves, and she opened it. "A bracelet?" It was a silver bracelet, not thick but not a thin, dainty one either. In fact, she had a funny feeling she knew what kind of bracelet this was. "You got me a Pandora bracelet?"

"I did," he nodded, and then nudged the next one to her. It was smaller than the first, but the remaining present was about the same size. "Open this."

Maya couldn't help herself. She was excited now, and once again ripped off the wrapping paper. This time she didn't hesitate, and popped the little box open. Inside lay a heart charm, decorated with little hearts around the edges. "Oh, Nick, this is so cute," she said, taking the bracelet out and the charm.

"You're welcome, Maya." He had a funny look on his face, but she decided that she would deal with that as soon as she finished with this last present and putting the bracelet together.

Once the bracelet was on her wrist, complete with the little charm, she noticed that the charm had a hinge. _Oooh, is there a surprise inside?_ Maya thought excitedly, popping it open. She gasped in shock and if it hadn't been attached to her wrist, she would've dropped it or thrown it across the room.

Inside lay a tiny, tiny golden ring with an even tinier diamond.

"Phoenix!" she gasped again, unsure of what all this meant.

"Oops," he said, looking terribly embarrassed. "I'm sorry Maya, I didn't realize that's what it looked like… I only saw that it had hearts and—well, I can return it…"

"W-well… Well, it was an honest mistake," she assured him, her heart still beating wildly. She'd never been in a Pandora store, but she could easily believe that he had been rushed and it was a fight just to get the one with the cute little hearts on it. And maybe they could go in together and pick out a new one. Yeah, it'd be fun, and they could go on as they were. Right.

She ignored the little sting of disappointment she felt.

Her fingers trembled as she picked up the other box. It was about the same size as the second and no less fun to open, even after her surprise from the last one. It was another small box, and she chuckled, wondering if there was another charm inside. Maya propped the box open and this time, she did drop it.

Inside was a ring.

Phoenix leaned down and picked it up, cradling it in his hands. "Maya…"

"Is—is that why you were asking about being too old?" she whispered, staring at it. It was a simple gold band, but it meant so much more.

"Maya Fey, will you marry me?"

She looked up at him, once again locking eyes, and saw just how much he meant this question. "Yes," she whispered. "Yes, I'll marry you." The charm had been a hint, and this was the real thing.

Maya realized that even though she and Phoenix often ignored the reality of their relationship, they had been together as friends, family, partners, and lately, a couple, for a little more than twelve years at that point. _Twelve_ _years is an awfully long time to really know how much you love a man._

They had gone from one end of the earth to the other for each other, suffered pain and sorrow together, guided, led, and laughed together. There was nothing she would not do for him, nor he for her, and now… now he was slipping a little gold band on her finger and kissing her.

Maya felt a tear slip out of her eye when she realized that her sister would not be alive to see this.

"I love you," they whispered together, then slowly separated. Maya lifted her hand, watching the gold ring shimmer by the light of the Christmas tree and the TV fire.

"I chose that so maybe you and I could go shopping for a regular one," he told her quietly, taking her hand and running his thumb back and forth across the ring. "Something we could choose together."

She smiled, glad that he had answered her question without her needing to ask. It would've been terribly awkward and perhaps sounding a bit ungrateful if she had. "The charm wasn't a mistake."

"Nope."

"You tricked me!"

"I wanted you to give the third present a chance."

"Well," she sighed, laying her head on his shoulder again, her eyes still riveted on their hands and her new ring, "it worked."

"Merry Christmas, Maya."

"Merry Christmas, Phoenix."

* * *

 _Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this. I knew how I wanted it to go: I knew I wanted Nick to propose. I am a terrible romantic and Christmas Eve is the perfect night to propose. I also chose only a gold band because I think that Phoenix would worry too much about what she'd want her ring to look like. My own father proposed with a necklace and my mother picked out her ring, and a friend once said his family proposed with watches so that the fiancee could choose her own ring. I think it's practical! Therefore, Nick compromised and chose a plain one. I imagine that Maya will request that it be reworked to include whatever jewels they want, because really... it's a special ring now, filled with Christmas Eve magic._

 _The Pandora bracelet was a fun addition. I wanted Maya to get in the groove of opening presents so that the proposal wouldn't be **too** overwhelming. I skimmed through Pandora's website, looking at their charms and wondering what to give her. At first I thought a cute little Christmas tree would suit, and it still does_ — _Nick will probably give it to her on Christmas Day instead. Then I saw the hearts and this one particular heart. There is in fact a heart charm with little hearts etched on its front and back, with a tiny diamond ring inside. I knew I had to use it. Phoenix is definitely the kind of man to sneak that kind of surprise into a present, and I have to admit I drew inspiration for his "cover up" from my father, who once tricked my older sister by putting on a show of feeling bad for getting a game for the handheld she didn't have... **yet**._

 _Misha, I hope that you're happy with what I did here! I enjoyed using as many elements as I could from your requests. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!_


End file.
